Gaming machines which provide players awards in primary games are well known. Gaming machines generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate the primary game. In many of these gaming machines, the award is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards.
Secondary games are also known in gaming machines. Secondary games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated and provide an additional award, such as a secondary game award, to the player. The awards provided for such secondary games are calculated into or taken into account in the total average expected payout percentage of the gaming machines. Thus, the total average expected payout percentage or the total gaming machine return of such known gaming machines is the average expected payback percentage of the primary game plays plus the average expected payout percentage of the secondary game plays. In certain secondary games, the contribution of the secondary game accounts for around 30% of the total gaming machine return and typically varies within the range of 10% to 50% of the total gaming machine return. For example, a gaming machine having a total gaming machine return of 95% may include a primary game with 65% contribution to that total return and a secondary game with 30% contribution to that total return. It should be appreciated that gaming machine manufactures spend a significant amount of time and cost in developing the paytables utilized in determining the total gaming machine return (i.e., the paytables that account for the primary game and any secondary games of the gaming machine).
In certain known gaming machines, secondary games are activated or triggered upon an occurrence of a triggering symbol or triggering symbol combination in the primary game. For instance, a triggering symbol combination of three triggering symbols occurring on the payline (i.e., one triggering symbol on each reel) of a three reel slot machine may initiate a secondary game. In the gaming machine software of these gaming machines, the triggering symbols or the triggering symbol combinations are identified or otherwise flagged. When the triggering symbols or the triggering symbol combinations generated in the primary game are analyzed by the gaming machine's software, if a flag is associated with the analyzed triggering symbols or triggering symbol combinations, the gaming machine's software triggers the secondary game. That is, these gaming machines include symbol-driven secondary games which are triggered by the gaming machine. It should be appreciated that since these are game defined triggering symbols or triggering symbol combinations, the frequency and payouts are determined by the number of triggering symbols available, the likelihood that each triggering symbol is generated in an activation or play of the game and the randomness of such generations, and thus are considered an integral part of the game and the characteristic of the gaming machine.
Other known gaming machines include one or more secondary games that are selectively activated by the player. In these gaming machines, if the player is qualified to do so, the player decides when to play the bonus game. One such gaming machine enables a player to collect or accumulate designated symbols as such designated symbols are generated in the primary game. When enough designated symbols have been accumulated, the player can choose to participate in a secondary game by exchanging one or more of their accumulated designated symbols for one or more plays of the secondary game. Since qualifying to participate in such secondary games is based on accumulating enough designated symbols in the primary game, the frequency and payouts for such selectively accessed secondary games are determined by the number of designated symbols available, the likelihood of each designated symbol being generated and the randomness of such generations and thus are considered an integral part of the gaming device and the characteristic of the gaming machine.
Certain other known gaming machines trigger mystery secondary games (which provide mystery secondary game awards) without any apparent reason to the player. These gaming machines trigger and display a mystery secondary game (and provide a player any mystery secondary game award in the mystery secondary game) independent of any displayed event in or based specifically on any of the displayed plays of any primary game. Such mystery secondary game awards typically account for a smaller contribution to the total gaming machine return and are considered separate from the primary game (i.e., these mystery secondary games are sometimes said to sit on top of any existing primary games and any existing symbol-driven secondary games). One example of a known mystery bonus game includes enabling a player to play for one of a plurality of simultaneously maintained progressive awards arranged in a multi-level progressive (“MLP”) configuration. It should be appreciated that many of these known mystery bonus games require the gaming machine's software to trigger such mystery secondary games and further to work in conjunction with any other symbol-driven secondary games.
Gaming system delivered or gaming system triggered mystery secondary games are also known. Gaming system mystery secondary games are triggered from a central server, central controller or remote host (i.e., independent from any gaming machine). Such gaming system mystery secondary games are configured to be delivered to or associated with any suitable game played on a suitable gaming machine in the gaming system without having special game software or code associated with these suitable gaming machines. However, these gaming system triggered mystery secondary games typically only add less than 1% to the gaming machine average expected total return. That is, a player would have to wager $100 to be provided an additional average secondary game award of $1 as a gaming system mystery secondary game award. Accordingly, such gaming system mystery secondary games usually require many gaming machines to be in the gaming system and operate relatively long times between payouts of substantial sized mystery secondary game awards (which are thus provided to a few players at the expense of many other players).
Accordingly, there is a continuing need to provide new and different gaming machines and gaming systems as well as new and different ways to provide awards to players.